Looks like President Twitter Fingers’ tweets and other forms of communications are going to be used as the central focus of Colin Kaepernick’s collusion grievance against the NFL.

According to CBS Sports, a source with knowledge of the details of the grievance says it is expected to point to the current culture that has been fostered by Donald Trump as part of the reason teams have failed to extend a contract to the talented football player, who has been a free agent since March.

In the 2016 season, Kaepernick was the first NFL player to kneel during the national anthem before games as a way to protest police brutality and racial injustice across the nation. When he opted out of his contract at the end of last season, it was assumed that he would be signed by another team, but when that didn’t happen, many suspected that the NFL owners had blacklisted Kaepernick for his protest.

The NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement language on collusion notes that, “No Club, its employees or agents shall enter into any agreement, express or implied, with the NFL or any other Club, its employees or agents to restrict or limit individual Club decision-making ... ”

And normally, as the news site notes, focus has been placed on the need to provide evidence of communications between team owners and/or the league office in order for a case to be successful.

However, in Kaepernick’s case, since y’all’s president can’t stop tweeting, maybe things will work out differently. Trump has notably sent out tweets (and also generally commented) about speaking to owners directly on the matter of the protests and also boasting about his influence over them. Let us also never forget that he referred to kneeling players as “sons of bitches” during a public rally in Alabama.

From CBS Sports:

In this instance, Kaepernick could argue, in addition to “express” collusion — generally emails, text messages or written/oral arrangements among clubs or the league office — that some or all NFL clubs/owners also had an “implied” agreement with the league and/or each other based on messages received from President Trump, which the president publicly discussed on Twitter and in speeches to restrict decision-making regarding signing Kaepernick.

Advertisement

So Kaepernick’s legal team could actually argue that this behavior has created a climate in which owners colluded to keep the quarterback from gaining employment in the NFL.